New Mission President Smith

Hello to all who like reading about my week!
As you can see by the email title, we now have a new mission
president! I will talk about that later. So I have had such a great
week in Scarsdale New York, there has been a lot of crazy miracles and
wonderful experiences that have happened. I've been feeling the hand
of the Lord in the work we are putting forth.
This last Thursday we did weekly planning and we did that so quickly
and we made a VGPA (Vision, Goals, Plans, Accountable)
for this transfer. We put our vision for this area,
the goals we have, the plans for each goal and who we are accountable
to. We have a goal of 100 hours of tracting this transfer and we have
been doing great in our efforts. We got a call from brother Darger in
our ward who does public affairs and stuff and he invited as many
missionaries to come to this other church gathering thing on Sunday.
We told him we would come. We were excited about that.
Friday we had a lesson with a recent convert who was doing yard work
with his shirt off when we pulled up and it caught me off guard but it
was a great lesson, he had questions about testimony and just some
questions that we were able to answer. We had a lot of time to tract
and found some potentials. We had a dinner with this recent convert
Jessica. She cooks really good food and she caters. It was super great
to be able to see the members of this ward and how active they are. Oh
we played volleyball with investigators and recent converts and I
actually had fun. I don't usually like volleyball but I actually enjoy
playing it now.
Saturday we were able to help the Morgan's be prepared to move, we
were in the basement of the mission home sweeping all the dirt,
spiders and webs off of the walls and vacuuming them up. It was weird
to not see president in proselyting clothes, he was just in jeans and
a polo and he was cleaning just as we were. It was so sad to help them
clean the place so they can leave. We had a lesson with an
eternalgator so an investigator who has been investigating for a
while. We went hard to get him to church because he hasn't been to
church since he started investigating 2 years ago.
Sunday was great, this ward shrinks a lot during the summer so we are
able to help in anyway possible. It's weird to have such a small ward
here but that's our job. We need to fill the seats with families.
That's our goal. We went to sacrament and to gospel principals and
then we left church to go to that gathering at this African Methodist
Episcopal Zion Church. It was for the killing of some people in
Charleston recently. It was weird because we sat there and they were
yelling and saying some inspiring words. There is a big difference
between our church and their church. I feel the spirit so strongly
when I go to church each week but at this church we went to I didn't
feel the spirit at all. We had this huge social thing where we sat
with people who don't share the same beliefs with us and we talk.
People were really excited to see us on our missions and they asked us
a bunch of questions! It was a super cool missionary opportunity, and
they chose a scripture from the Book of Mormon for everyone to analyze
and to figure out what it means.
Monday was district meeting, it was great and the spirit was strong in
that room. Elder Essler and Sister Gardner from the MTC are in my
district and it's cool to see how much we have grown from the
beginning. We tracted and got a lot of lessons on Monday and found a
lot of new people who are ready to hear this message so hopefully we
will be able to get things rolling with them.
Tuesdays (yesterday) was such a crazy day. President and Sister Smith
and their family came and introduced themselves. They have 3 kids a 15
and 13 year girl, and an 11 year old boy. They all spoke to us and I
could just feel the spirit from them all, President and Sister Smith
are young! It's crazy but it's what the Lord wants. We all were able
to have that confirmation yesterday when we heard them spoke. They
will be coming to our ward so we will get to know them well. I got a
picture with President and Sister Smith. They invited us over for
dinner, with the APs, the Sisters and us. We had pizza but we had to
leave for a lesson. We showed them that we are busy missionaries and
we want them to know how hard we do work. Our lesson was with an
investigator named Edgardo who was getting ready to drop us but we
were able to share that because of him video. We shared it and Elder
Smith told him to open his Book of Mormon to a random page and read
the first verse he sees. He did it and he felt the spirit and it
answered questions he was having. We testified so much. I felt the
spirit guiding every word I said. I am so grateful for that experience
and I love this area. It's one of those experiences that you will
always remember for the rest of your life.
I know that the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is the
true church of Christ. I know that the Book of Mormon is the word of
God and as we follow the teachings of Christ our lives will improve.
The Book of Mormon answers questions. I know that we can pray and ask
our Heavenly Father any question that we have and he WILL answer it. I
know what I am doing is where the lord needs me. Sorry I wrote so
much. I love you all and I hope everything and everyone is doing well.
Love,
Elder Casper

Dad!
Scarsdale is so great, we have been seeing so many miracles in this
area and I'm truly seeing the Lords hands in our work and in my
teaching as well. My companion is really cool, he is really great
companion and we have fun. His name is Elder Steven Smith and he comes
from a small town in California named Julian which is in San Diego
county. I like him more or less, there are something's that bug me but
they are small and not a big deal. We do get along though so that's
good. I love him and he is truly a great guy.
The baseball game is going to be so great, it starts at 6 here so at 3
in California. You will just see a bunch of people in white shirts and
ties. It's going to be great and a lot of fun! We will be getting to
kingsbridge in the Bronx at 5, so an hour before it starts and I'm
hoping we will be able to get a free hat! I haven't bought one and I'm
really not planning on it because they are so expensive.
Oh yeah I forget that Fourth of July is this weekend, as a missionary
you don't really remember that it's a holiday you just knock doors
anyways. It makes people mad, I remember in newtown this one veteran
we knocked into and he cussed us out and told us our religion is a
myth and we just thanked him for his service.. He wasn't too happy but
we just smiled and waved. And of course left because he didn't seem
too happy. Anyways it was mainly my companion who did that. I was
pretty terrified.

That's cool how the ward and the missionaries are helping with the
float. It's pretty cool to get the name of the church out there
because people need to know who we are. It's pretty much everyday that
someone tells us that they have never heard of our church. That's our
job, to put the name of the church out there.
 Haha I hope you will
keep that car though because I love it and it is a great car.
Yay! I'm moving up in the world, well on the board! it's weird to
think how long I've been out. Elder Reyne told me he comes home in
November of this year which means I will have a year by then. And I
can't believe that everyone comes home like a year before me.
Still writing everyday in my journal and I'm so glad I am. I have
pictures to send as well!
The mission office is in our area so we can go there and get mail
whenever we want to. My ward is the Westchester 1st Ward and it covers
white plains, Scarsdale, east Chester, tuckahoe, and a little bit of
Bronxville. And little towns inside the boundaries. The cool thing
about this area is president and Sister Smith are in our Ward! We are
there missionaries! I have a car, we drive in the upstate version of
the city!
Love you! You mean so much to me, and so does mom! You have done so
many great things for me in my life and I can never repay you for any
of it. I just hope I will be able to grow up to be as great of a man
as you dad. Mom has helped me so much in my life and I can't wait to
show her that when I get home and move on in life. I'll get to the
other email!
Elder Casper

Transferring to White Plains, Westchester Zone

Hello Family and Friends!
The Major news of the week is that I am finally leaving Newtown and
heading over to Scarsdale, which is white plains. It's been a pretty
emotional week, I've been saying good bye to all our wonderful members
and of course we are still working hard. I have seen a lot of miracles
here and I don't want to leave but I know the Lord needs me else
where. Once you get comfortable, that's when the lord moves you and
gives you more/harder experiences. It's what I need. I'm going to be
with Elder Smith! Oh and President Smith comes in the mission today!
The coolest thing happened on Sunday, after we were heading home, we
get a phone call from a sister in our Ward telling us that her husband
is teaching this guy who pulled into the driveway wanting to learn
more. So we quickly turned around, maybe we drifted maybe we didn't...
But we got back to the church and this member was teaching this kid
about how to feel the spirit and how to get answers. He talked about
the Book of Mormon and then he had to leave and we were able to teach
him, we'll get to know him and testify to him. He has the coolest
story on how he found the church. Him and his friend like to parkour
so they were riding around, looking for places to parkour and they
found the church and they did some parkour but he was wondering what
our church believed. That is one of those miracles that you see when
you leave an area. We set up a time to meet on Monday.
Sunday night we had a dinner with a wonderful members. They are the
ones who had one of their kids serve in the California Roseville
mission. They have a kid preparing to go to Kobe Japan, his name is
Hunter and he comes out with us about once a week. It was fun, then we
headed over to our old bishops house, and I love their family. They
made a cake for Father's Day and to celebrate me leaving. I am going
to miss them and I got to arm wrestle our old Bishop, I lost but
whatever... Haha it was so much fun!
Monday we taught that wonderful young man, his name is Collin. I'm so
glad he came up to our member and asked if he could learn more. We
taught him the restoration with Zachary Loutensock. It was a great
lesson! Collin asked us a bunch of questions afterwards and we
answered them all. It must be true or something.
Tuesday was great. We had another investigator lesson with a member
present. Hunter came with us. We taught the restoration and this lady,
her name is Jen. She was definitely feeling the spirit and you could
see the wheels spinning and she was thinking of how this makes sense..
Of course it does! I had a pretty crazy experience yesterday, I was
pretty scared. So we were tracking and walking away and we can hear a
storm coming with thunder. It sounded far away. We kept saying that it
won't rain until we give all the cards we have out. It was getting
closer and closer. Then it started pouring when we had 1 card left. It
was pouring and the sky was being lit up with lightening and we were
running hard core home and all we heard was crackling thunder and it
was crazy and I thought I was going to die. It was terrifying. It took
us 1 hour to get home from ridgefield. There were trees in the middle
of roads and yeah we were soaked.
I am fine though and I was lucky to say good bye to the Loutensocks
and our Ward mission leader and another cool family in this Ward. I
packed last night and it's just been crazy. We also got a new car last
Friday, a 2015 Toyota Corolla and that thing drives so nice! Too bad I
get it right before I get transferred! It's been crazy and I've felt
the spirit a lot this week and I've been so lucky to be able to teach
all these people. I love this! I really don't want to leave but I'm
ready to go to Scarsdale.

Hey Mom!
This week was so good! I did get that package and I got a new Journal!
I started it yesterday! I ate all those cookies but I shared them. I
got transferred to White Plains, so Scarsdale! I can't wait to go to
my next area.
It sounds super fun, so Father's Day was fun? If you ever see Devon
again, just tell him I miss that kid. Cleaning the church is a fun
experience.
I hope you are doing great and I hope you're having fun! My weekly
email will be coming like right after this! I love you so much and I
hope you are having a fun time at home and I truly miss you! I like
being updated on what's going on! Thanks for everything you do for me!
Love you!

Zone Conference and Fun Times!

Hello everyone! 

How are you?! So before I get into my week, you know
that baptism that was supposed to happen this week? Yeah well it's not
happening because of some things that have came up. The guy we are
teaching is named Ravy and he is a cool dude, I've never actually met
him because when we were on a split when they stopped by but hopefully
we will meet with him again soon. The Baptism date is up in the air
and next Wednesday is Transfers and this time I feel like I'm out. I
really wish that I could be here for that baptism, it would be a great way to
leave the area but I'll find out if I'm leaving Saturday.

Last Friday we had a wonderful zone conference with president Morgan
and Sister Morgan. It was presidents last zone conference and it was
definitely emotional. President gave us ways to become better
disciples of Christ and how we can be consecrated. We shouldn't "try"
to be consecrated, just do it, be consecrated. He talked a lot about
faith and how its key to missionary work. We were authorized on
Facebook on Friday as well. You will be seeing inspired posts and
hopefully people commenting on them but I can't wait to reach a whole
bunch of new people in a way that us as missionaries have never been
able to before. I love president and I'm going to miss him so much but
I am way excited to be here at this time when president Smith comes
in. President Morgan made us all missionaries get emotional. President
told us how much he loves us and told us how sad he is to be leaving.
The spirit was strong there and when you looked around the room you
just see all the missionaries wiping their eyes. It was sad but it was
a great meeting.

Saturday was fun, I went on a split with Elder Richan! In the morning
we went to teach 2 of their investigators named brother Dan and little
Dan. We taught them the gospel of Jesus Christ and they understood it
well and they are definitely swell chaps. They have a baptism date for
July 11th! We did a little bit of tracting and then did some sweet
service for a family in the Danbury Ward. We raked a lot of leaves
from the ground that have been stuck there since winter. Got
everything done and then we ate some hot dogs that we cooked over a
camp fire. They were so good! After 4 hours of being there we went to
look up a less active and we found him home. He let us in and we got
to know home. It's been a couple years since anyone has stopped by his
house and I'm glad we got in. The spirit was with us and he wants to
come back to church but his family doesn't really care about it. He is
that dad and we were telling him that if he comes, his family may
follow. I love being able to feel the spirit, it brings such a calming
feeling and makes me excited to be here where I am right now.

Sunday was a great day, at church we talked a lot about what we have
learned at stake conference and its possible that the Bishopric may
ask me if I can give a talk, because I haven't in this Ward. I might
be transferring though so I won't be able to give one. I am more than
willing to give one if they ask me to, I'm also really excited about
it! 

Monday was a wonderful day, we got to tract for like 2 hours and found
4 new potential investigators in the space of that time. Gave out 4
copies of the Book of Mormon! I was seeing the lords hand in my work
and it feels great.

On Tuesday I was on a split with Elder Allred. He is an amazing man
and we had such a wonderful day doing service, eating, tracting, going
to visit some less actives, having dinner at a members and stopping by
a super less active (she has medical problems). Elder Allred used to
serve in Newtown so he knows a lot of people. It was by far the
funnest split I've been on while being on my mission!

That is how my week has been, it's been a pretty stressful week
because of the new mission president and its hard being a missionary.
I'm having one of those weeks. I love being a missionary and serving
the people. Missionary work has its ups and downs.

I love this church, I know that the Book of Mormon is true and that
Joseph smith was a prophet of God, he truly did see our Heavenly
Father and his son Jesus Christ. I know that Jesus Christ suffered for
us all and that through the atonement we can be cleansed from sin and
forgiven. I know that we can ask our Heavenly Father for help through
any trial we go through. I love being a missionary here and I know
this is the true church of Christ, once again established upon the
face of the earth. I love you and hope you have a great week!

Dad!

How is everything? That Baptism isn't still on but we hope that we can
get another one set! His name is Ravy.

Yes I am now on Facebook so be prepared for wonderful posts that can
hopefully help you personally. That photo was taken at the Alma
Academy and that was the APF we did.

The Yankees baseball game happens on the 3rd of July, so I was
thinking you guys should record that game, they will do a pan of all
us wonderful missionaries. You will see a lot of white shirts. It will
definitely be a memory worth keeping and taking pictures. I still
haven't found a cap, if I get transferred to the city then I can get a
cheap one.

We have been getting too much rain.. It's been irritating because all
I want to do is tract all day, every day. I hope California will get
hit with rain, whatever happens happens. California is getting it bad,
maybe there are too many wicked people there... Haha that was a joke
some member told me.

Brandi did email me so that's exciting. I'll have to spend time writing her.

I'm grateful for mom buying me those journals, and I laughed when you
said in Typical Fashion. Thank you so much for everything you guys do
for me. Our mail day is on Friday, if it gets here before Friday
morning I will get it, if not then I will have to do that journal
idea. I'm glad I haven't missed a day yet.


My youth companion was pretty shy so it ended up being just me but it
was fun and I got a lot of practice in.

My mission is flying by and I'm trying my hardest to not waste any
time and do all that I can to help everyone I serve. Any study is good
study, I wish I studied PMG way more before my mission. I wish I knew
the lessons before I left so when I got here it wouldn't have been
such a shock. It would have helped me be a better missionary. Anyways.
I love you mom and dad and I hope you guys have a fun and safe week!
Love you!

Elder Casper

Alma Academy, Stake Conference and Baptism

Hello to everyone! This week has been crazy fun!

So while we were planning on Thursday the Zone leaders come into the
room we were planning in. They tell us that we are going to the city
this Saturday for Alma Academy which is a day in the life of a
missionary. The youth from this stake got to go on splits with us down
near the temple. So on Saturday we woke up at 4, drove to Stamford at
5 and got to the Stamford chapel at 6. We were driven to Manhattan by
the office elders and it was such a great ride. We did some street
contacting with a 16 year old youth and we gave some copies of the
Book of Mormon. It was a good experience for me, I realized that I
need to talk more and open my mouth to everyone. It was such a great
experience and I felt the spirit guiding my words to everyone I opened
my mouth to. I was definitely blessed to be a part of that and
Heavenly Father wanted me to have that experience. I sweated so much,
and we had to wear our suits and it was a pretty hot but luckily
windy. We also met so many members while doing the Book of Mormon approach.
We have this huge piece of plywood with Book of Mormon written on it,
so people got pictures with it. I got pictures with it, so I will send
that.

We had stake conference this weekend, and the adult session was
amazing and so spiritual. It was one of the last times president
Morgan would speak as a mission president. Our stake president and
area 70 spoke. I love stake conference so much, and I took so many
notes and it made me want to be better and to have faith. I am so
happy I am a missionary and that I am apart of this mission. Sunday is
where the miracle happened, we were doing our companionship study and
we get a phone call from some guy from Utah. The guy tells us that
they are working with someone over there who wants to be baptized and
he is moving to Bethel Connecticut. So that is our area, and yesterday
they met with this guy on a split and they extended a baptismal date
of June 27th, and it turns out he wants to be baptized on the 20th. So
we have a baptism on the 20th and I am super excited. We meet with him
tonight and introduce him to members and figure out what we need to
teach him. He has been investigating the church for a while and he is
super ready to be baptized. We think he has already been taught
everything but we are excited! My first Baptism on the mission! It's
not often that people fall out of heaven and want to be baptized! I
love it so much and I'm so excited.

We have been giving out a lot of copies of the Book of Mormon. This
area is starting to see progress, we are hoping we have some more
people to teach. We have been tracking so much, and it's great.. Oh
and there are 2 more weeks left of this transfer so that is crazy!

We had a split yesterday, I went with Elder Hofheins to his area. I
got to be in the Spanish program for a day and teach people and be
part of that. Elder Hofheins told me that he looks up to Elder Ross
and I because he knows we hit it hard and tract our brains out. That
made me feel good but I look up to him a lot. Anyways it was good, we
got hit with a huge rain storm where there was so much water coming
down we couldn't even see. Even with our windshield wipers on full.

Anyways that's about it for this week, I love all of you so much and
sorry this email is random and yeah. I can't remember much to that
happened haha, love you!

Newtown Never Gets Old

Hello dear people who want to read my email,

This week has been random and fun and crazy and yeah. So last Thursday
the Assistants to the President came down and tracted in our area
because they want to see how all areas of the mission are doing. We
found someone who may be interested and told us they would call us so
that's pretty cool. Later that day we were walking down this street
and this lady slowed down next to us and said "don't knock on my
door", and then told us the number... She pulled into her driveway and
we realized that we already did.. So yeah. People aren't super
receptive to this message here but we try! It rained so hard as well,
like we were going to a gas station to go use the restroom and as soon
as we got there it was pouring and we ran inside and we were already
super wet. Then by the time we were done there were huge puddles and
we got soaked. Rain over here is random and intense.

This weekend has been down in the 50s because of a cold spike. Also a
lot more rain, and this time we were pretty far away from our car so
we sprinted to our car and yeah there was no out running that rain. We
were soaked by the time we got in our car, dripping wet. I can
honestly say I don't like random rain storms.. But I definitely love
the people here!

We decided to tract the other day after we visited a less active (it
poured that day as well). Knocked on the first door, no one answered
and on the second one, this guy was playing guitar, and I told Elder
Ross I played guitar. The guy opens the door and elder Ross says
"Elder Casper plays guitar" and the guy says "well come on in". I
guess he was a former investigator, and he was dropped a year ago and
he let us in. He let me play his guitar a bit and then we had a really
sweet discussion about how the callings are chosen in our church. He
told us to drop by whenever and he would make us brownies and we could
teach him! He was really cool!

About 14+ Families are moving out of this Ward this summer, so about
50 people are leaving to the west coast! (Yay for west coast, a lot of
them to California!) a lot of missionary work needs to be done here to
keep the ward growing.

We found this guy who is training to be an episcopalian minister, and
some of his family are a members, he has read the Book of Mormon and he
had a testimony of it. He is way enthusiastic and he loves scriptures.
He prayed us out of our lesson and we all held hands and the spirit
was with us in that meeting and I hope him and his family will like
what they are hearing and feel good. While he was praying he was
praying for us to have wonderful missions. He is amazing and would
make a strong member in this Ward.

We had dinner at a members house last night and he showed us a really
cool way to tract. You say your missionaries and you want to talk
about the Book of Mormon. The pictures in the front explain what the
book is about, it's all about Jesus Christ, it's about Lehi and his
family being commanded by God to leave to the Americas, the build a
ship and head to the Americas, there are baptisms and crazy things
going on! Then Jesus Christ appears to the people of America, and
performs miracles and ministers unto them. Then you show them chapter
11 of 3rd Nephi and invite them to read it and ask if you can come
back and talk about it. You follow the spirit of course. And it works,
we did it to a potential investigator and she let us in to their home
and we used the Book of Mormon and invited her to read chapter 11 and
she was excited! It was way cool to see that work and I could feel the
spirit working through me and I was so grateful for that moment.

He also told us that we should always be praying, especially at every
door. But missionaries who have a prayer in their heart always asking
for help as you teach are successful. I tried it yesterday and I felt
the spirit stronger than I've ever felt it. I love this gospel, I love
being able to "flood the earth" with the Book of Mormon and to be a
representative of Jesus Christ. This Gospel brings me so much joy and
I love sharing it with everyone!

Thanks for everything you do for me, and thanks for all of your
prayers! Love you all and hope you have a great week!

Dad,

I have been super good, missionary work has its ups and downs but I'm
on the uphill climb of it all. Im feeling a lot better and now I have
just been super sore from all the tracting we do. We have been working
as hard as we can and we try not to waste any time! We have been
finding new people that were interested, and people have been
generally pretty receptive. There are some cool stories I'll tell in
my weekly email.

Brandi doesn't ever write me, but tell her congrats on graduating! I'm
excited for her! I'm also excited that you all will see grandparents.
Sounds like a lot of fun. I'm the lowest I've weighed in a long time!
My new weight is 222.4 lbs! I'm not sure how it all goes down.
Anyways. Yeah life is good here and I'm feeling like I'm leaving this
area after this Transfer. I am definitely excited to see where I will
go next. But of course I don't know, only the Lord knows! I have 20 or
less pages left in my journal, so 20 days!

Are you excited to have your last kid be done with high
school and leave? You will soon be empty nesters! Time will fly by and
then I will be home before you know it! Everyday flies by and it's
becoming faster and faster each day. Sometimes I do miss home but I am
trying my hardest to be as consecrated as possible. Hopefully we will
find some sweet people soon, other than the people we have already
found. I don't know what else to say but I hope you're doing good!
Keep reading and praying and studying preach my gospel and the
prophets and apostles. Especially as a family. Make that a priority. I
wish we did that more when I was younger.. Anyways!

I love you and mom so much, you have taught me to do so many great
things and with out you guys, I wouldn't be here. I'm grateful for
what you have taught me, you have raised me to be so much more than I
could ever do by myself. I wish I was better than I was before my
mission, I wish I did the things I had to and was a more obedient
child. Truth of it all is that I am changing and it's what the Lord
needs me to become. Thanks for everything! 

Love,
Elder Casper

Interview President Morgan

Hello to everyone who loves missions,

It has been getting hot and humid, definitely not my 2 favorite things
that's for sure. This last weekend was incredible, there was a cold
breeze coming in so tracting was fun. That's what we have been doing
with a majority of our time. We don't have any investigators so we've
been trying to do more finding so we can teach people in this area.
Our finding has been kind of successful, we found this girl in
Brookfield who was interested, she is a senior in high school and she
loved the message we shared so hopefully we can teach her, and
possibly some families but there isn't much teaching going on in this
area, one thing we are really trying to work on.

Last Thursday we got a call from the zone leaders and the Assistants
to the president are coming on a split with the zone leaders in our
area, the AP's want to see how all of our areas are doing and we
really need help in Newtown. I have been praying for miracles and
asking for guidance and I feel that we will find someone soon! 

Sunday we had interviews with President Morgan and he hinted to me
that I'm probably going to be transferred next transfer (Which I'm
fine with). It would be good to see other parts of the mission.
President is an amazing man and it's sad that he is leaving is in
July... I'm excited for president Smith!

Monday was Memorial Day, so happy Memorial Day to everyone, we went to
a ward picnic and ate a lot of food and socialized with the members
and all that fun stuff. Ate some Ice cream, oh then tracted aha. We
ran into a veteran who cussed us out on Saturday... But then we found
an extremely nice guy who was pretty interested afterwards.

Tuesday was fun, we have Zone conference coming up and we will be
getting Facebook back around June 12th and everyone in the mission has
to prepare a 5 minute talk on obedience which is a piece of cake. When
you are obedient to the rules you are more successful, you are
blessed. I'm excited to write the talk and receive wonderful training!
There is a lot going on in the mission right now.. But that's pretty
much it! I love our members, they like sending pictures to our
families, and I love that! 

Life is great, missions are great and I'm having fun and sweating a
lot. I now weigh 222.4lbs. I love this work and I have been studying
preach my gospel a lot and chapter 2 where it talks about the role of
the Holy Ghost in studying and when you study you should pray to have
the Holy Ghost teach you while you read. I've noticed when I pray for
the Holy Ghost my studies are amazing and I learn so much!

I hope everyone has a wonderful week and stays cool! Sorry there are
no pictures this week.

Love,
Elder Casper

Mom,

Hello! My week has been great, and we have been doing a lot of
tracting ha. Memorial Day was good, we went to a ward picnic and
walked around and talked with members. I have been sick but now it's
just allergies so that's fine. 

Our investigator is doing pretty swell, we haven't been able to meet
with him for awhile, hopefully soon. We found some other cool people
that hopefully will be interested. I really don't feel like I'm
growing all that much but thank you so much mom!

I have probably 25 pages left in my journal, not too much left but
hopefully you can get me one soon! I remember I used the tall font!
Haha. I can't believe Brandi will be working at dads office. Will she
be answering phones and things like that?

I love you!

Love,
Elder Casper

Working Hard in Connecticut

Hello all,

What's all going on? Everything is going great here in Newtown. For
anyone who doesn't know I now have a new companion whose name is Elder
Ross. He is from Green River Wyoming and he was trained by the same
missionary as I was. He is a hard working missionary and he is very
obedient so that is good. He is a good influence on me after having 2
companions who went home aha.

I've been sick for this whole past week and I'm slowly recovering! We
have still been getting our tracting in and finding people who weren't
interested in learning anything but they were super nice to us. One
guy we ran into was on the grass with his dog and we came up and
introduced ourselves. He immediately asks us where we are from and
talks to us and he knows members who live outside of our mission and
we gave him the gospel of Jesus Christ pamphlet and our number if he
was ever interested. We haven't seen too many miracles happen this
week but I can list out what happened this week! 

Wednesday we looked up a potential investigator and she told us to
come back later. I wasn't feeling to great so we went in early to
rest, oh and we made a bunk bed in our apartment and settled in. And
it was the start of a wonderful companionship!

Thursday was Weekly Planning and a cool little lesson with a member
and 2 non members. So this guy from Yuma Arizona has his sister who
lives in Ridgefield Connecticut. The non members are both a little
older and the man has bladder cancer and the women broke her leg bone
or something but they both work at Keller Williams. We talked a lot
about what we do as missionaries and just answered the questions they
had. We will be calling them soon to set up a time to come back.

Friday we went to see some of the less active older people and just to
be there for them and read with them! I love being around old people
because they are super nice to us and love us and always thankful for
us being there! Did a lot of finding as well and weren't too
successful.

Saturday we did some service for a non member who knows a member from
our Ward and we were in the forest pretty much, cutting vines from the
ground and ripping them out and all that fun stuff. Yeah it was a good
opportunity to talk to him about what we do and we left a good
impression with him. We went up to sandy hook to do some finding and
we decided to knock this entire street and we did that. At the bottom
of the hill this weird guy said to us "is that it?" " why don't you
keep going, go up there." So we decided to listen to this guy and we
went up to this street, knocked on some houses and at the fourth house
this guy comes out of this side garden and says hello. Soon his wife
and kid come out as well. They were way friendly to us and we talked
to them for 25 minutes. Turns out this lady knows someone from our
Ward! It was such a blessing from the lord, we have put in time to
find his children and he finally blessed us with a family. Preach my
gospel tells us to strive to teach families so they can be sealed to
their family forever. I can't wait to teach them! We invited them to
church and they said that they would come sometime!

Sunday morning we had an Aaronic priesthood meeting with the bishop
because Elder Ross hasn't met bishop and he really wanted too. We were
in with the priests and they set up some splits we will go on with the
priests coming soon. We told them that we would tract their brains out
and that it would be fun. I am scared to not be with an experienced
companion because I am not good with door approaches or talking to
people, but I know the Lord will bless me when I open my mouth. Before
and after we had dinner we went and did finding and again no one
interested. One thing I've noticed is that the Lord doesn't bless us
all the time, we have to put in work and have the faith that we will
find someone. Something I struggle with is having the faith that I
will find someone. And lately I have felt as if Heavenly Father
abandoned me and I wasn't having any help but if I think back I see
that he has blessed me a lot. I may not be the best missionary but
over time I will be better.

We have just had a lot of finding time and that has been good but
nothing to crazy happened over these past couple weeks other than just
trying to find people and work hard and have no regrets.

I know that this is the true church of Christ, and that Joseph smith
was a prophet and the Book of Mormon is true. I know that what I am
doing is the lords work and he is guiding me to the people who need to
hear this message of the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ. I
love you and I hope you have a great week!

Study Lehis dream in 1 Nephi 8, 11. Also preach my gospel from the
very beginning will help us as members of the church!

Elder Casper